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Pyracantha Press
About the Pyracantha Press
Pyracantha Press is the independent publishing imprint in the Herberger Institute School of Art at Arizona State University. The Press is directed by Daniel Mayer who has produced inter-disciplinary collaborative works since 1986. Projects created under the Press are limited-edition books and prints that reflect our cultural landscape. Each project is unique and experimental in form and content. Press publications are in 105 national and international public collections such as Columbia University, Library of Congress, The Getty, Klingspor-Stadt Museum, Letterform Archive, Wellesley, Yale, and among others. Mayer’s private studio practices include award-winning large-scale public art projects, national and international exhibitions, collections, and artist’s residencies. Mayer was a nominee for the 2016 Arizona Governor’s Arts Awards, individual artist category.
The Press is a School of Art initiative for creative research, education, and community outreach.
In 2016 and 2006, Mayer facilitated bringing in The Antonia and Adam Petko Type and Press Collection. The Collection includes 3000 cases of type (enough to fill three semi-trucks) and several ornate printing presses including an 1834 Columbian. ASU’s type collection is the largest at any institution of higher education in North America. The collection is named in honor Dr. Edward Petko’s parents. The Press was established in 1982 by Prof. Emeritus John Risseeuw.
Are interested in a purchase or more information?
Daniel.Mayer@asu.edu
Director of Pyracantha Press
480-965-3713
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Limited-edition books
Forthcoming project with Kurt Weiser, regent’s professor in Ceramics. A series of 30” x 44” linoleum cuts and zig-zag artists’ books cut from the prints bound in Japanese Awashi book cloth. These are Weiser’s first linoleum cuts. Weiser is an internationally recognized ceramic artist who specializes in exquisite China painting on porcelain.
Individualocracy: The Personal Decisions that Govern Sprawl by Matthew Salenger, 2015. Collaborative artist’s book researching the role of the individual that contributes to urban sprawl using metropolitan Phoenix as the laboratory. Five books in a handmade slip-box, four books are a Turkish mapfold structure and when combined together make up metropolitan Phoenix. The fifth book contains research data. Hand-tinted Tyvek, digital, polymer and letterpress printed on Mohawk Superfine I-Tone. Boxform measures 2” x 6” x 6”. Signed. 100 copies. Price: $1500
Moon Journey by Claudia Smigrod, 2011. A collection of pin-hole photographs (digitized and printed from an Epson) along with text by Jake Dingman and music by Sam Dingman. Thirty-eight pages with seventeen digitized pinhole photographs and fifteen text passages handset in Baskerville types with blind embossments on Somerset Book paper. Landscape format 13” x 17”, with screw-post binding using handmade Nepalese paper and red silk cloth over boards. 30 copies. Signed. Price: $1500 (8 remaining copies)
Time Square by Buzz Spector, 2007. A collaborative artist's book. Polymer letterpress on Somerset paper with screenprinted mylar cover, side-bound in post-and-screw, pages torn by Buzz Spector. 10" x 10". Edition of 30. Signed. $5000 (One remaining copy)
Noisy by Nature by Mary McCann, 2005. A collaborative artist's book with two new sound poems by Mary McCann, The Bone Mama, performance poet & deejay. The origami pop-out bookform concept is by Daniel Mayer. Bernhard Gothic and other types and visuals were printed from polymer relief plates or handset type. Xerox transfer onto cover boards. Tire-tread plates (inked-up and transferred from The Bone Mama's vintage BMW motorcycle) were hand-inked à la poupée. Bound in book boards and colored Tyvek. 5.75" x 4.5" 200 copies. Signed. $275
Eco Songs by Dimitrije Buzarovski, 2000. A song cycle based on poetic works by Chief Dan George, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Stevie Smith, Alfonsina Storni, Li Po, and the Book of Job. An artists' book printed and constructed of five different papers made from plant fibers from around the world. A codex section contains the poems as originally written. An accordion section displays the lyrics in visual typography, followed by a of the CD of the music. A last section of back matter gives information about the composer Buzarovski, the soprano Nan Hughes, the poets, and a colophon about the making of the book. 7" x 5.5" Edition of 90 on handmade paper, $750; 115 on recycled commercial paper $375. Signed.
PETRIfied forEAST by György Petri, Péter Forgács, and György Galántai. 1994. A VARS collaboration with poet Petri and artists Forgács and Galántai from Budapest, Hungary, on the theme of Freedom and Oppression. Three books in a slipcase with multicolor text and images printed by letterpress, relief, screenprinting, and low-speed flatbed offset lithography. Must be seen. Case 10.25 x 11.5" edition 225. Signed. Hard slipcase $1750 (2 remaining copies); soft slipcase version $625 (8 remaining copies).
The Warrington Poems by Alberto Rios, 1989. Twenty-three poems plus journal entries. Handset Stempel Optima types letterpressed on specially-made paper and on Rives Heavyweight. 62 pp. 5.6"x10" edition 155, of which 35 are on handmade paper and quarter-bound in grey leather and paste papers – One remaining copy: $1750. 120 copies printed on Rives paper with grey Canson paper wrappers: $325 (8 remaining softbound copies).
The Last Baron of Arizona by Joanna H. Kraus. 1986. A play about an incident from Arizona's 19th Century history — the largest land fraud in U.S. history. Handset in Baskerville and other types on Rives lightweight paper with line engravings of the period and a fold-out map. Quarter-bound in tan leather with marbled endpapers. 45 pp. 9.25" x 12.25" edition 120. Signed. $225
Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare. 1984. Newly edited with an introduction by John Doebler, with two lithographs by Leonard Lehrer. Monotype Bembo type on HMP handmade paper. Half-bound in black leather and maroon linen. 70 pp. 8.25" x 11" edition 120. $375
Puella by James Dickey. 1985. Nineteen poems handset in Palatino on Arches Text Laid paper with line engravings. Quarter-bound in black leather and natural cloth. 32 pp. 7.5" x 13.5" edition 150. Signed. $225
The Other Side of the House by Rita Dove. 1988. A collaborative book of seven poems by Rita Dove and seven photographs by Tamarra Kaida. The poems are handset in Palatino types and the photographs are printed by collotype on Rives Heavyweight paper. Bound in gray Dutch cloth. 45 pp. 18.25" x 13.5" edition 50. Out of Print.
Limited-edition prints
35 Faces of Dr. Petko, collaboration with guest artist Jessica Spring, Pyracantha Press, 2016. Letterpress broadside in four colors on 11 x 15 cover paper. Shaped text using Spring’s Dare-Devil Circular Furniture. Collaborative print honors the donor and incoming type collection. Edition of 120. Price: $50
Time Square by Buzz Spector, 2007. Collaborative print in 2 colors by polymer plates. 16” x 20” paper size. Edition of 100. Signed. $200
The Bill of Rights. 1991. Five-color broadside of the text of the Bill of Rights printed to commemorate the bicentennial of the document on December 15, 1991. Edition of 200, with 100 printed on 100% rag handmade paper made at the Press from pulp containing cotton American flags and blue jeans, and 100 copies on Amora, a German artists paper. 16" x 20" Handmade version (One remaining copy) $750; Amora German art paper $200
An Address by Fritz Scholder 1983. Three-color broadside in handset Palatino type on English handmade paper. Commencement speech by the noted artist. 12" x 18" edition 150. $125
Support Sanctuary! 1985. Two-color broadside with linoleum cut by Antonio Frasconi, text by Thoreau and others. 11" x 14" edition 123. Signed. Out of Print.
The Pyracantha Press is most pleased to announce . . . 1986. Six-color specimen broadside showing of new type acquisitions; Roycroft and Cooper Old Style on Amora paper. 12.5" x 38" edition 150. $50
For My People by Elizabeth Catlett. 1987. Three-color reduction linoleum block print with one-color letterpress quote from a poem by Margaret Walker. 18" x 22" Ed. 75. Signed. One remaining copy, $5000
Home Sweet Home by Margaret Prentice. 1990. Text from Hayden Carruth and Frank Lloyd Wright. Woodcut and letterpress on pulp-stenciled handmade paper. 12" x 17.75" edition 31. Signed. $400
Optimism by Pam Longobardi. 2000. Color print. Text by "P.S.D.L.", image by Longobardi. Letterpress and polymer relief with inkjet collage. 15" x 11" edition 40. Signed. $350
Gathering House by Alberto Rios. 2005. Broadside of poem written on the opening of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing on February 3, 2005. Wood relief and letterpress on handmade paper. 10" x 15" edition 150. Signed. $125 (14 remaining copies)
Dance by Francisco Mora. 1987. Two-color reduction linoleum block print. 22" x 18". Ed. 75 Signed. $400
Choice & Invoices by Beatrice Wood. 1987. Four-color broadside on handmade paper of a speech by ceramist Beatrice Wood upon receiving a Distinguished Service Award at the Craft Today Symposium in 1987. 11" x 15" edition 75. Beatrice Wood was instrumental in the avant garde movement and a contemporary of Marcel Duchamp. Signed. $125 (14 remaining copies)
Portfolios
The Floating Lady by Tony Delap. 1987. A portfolio of five collotype images based on French postcards, some with lithography or serigraphy augmentation. Letterpress title page and colophon page, held in a handmade clothbound box portfolio, foil-stamped. 16.5" x 21" edition 20. A VARS production. Signed. $7500 (One remaining copy)
Distant Markers by Lois M. Johnson and Laurel Rueter. 1990. A collaborative suite of five lithographic prints by Johnson with letterpress texts by Reuter accompanying the prints on vellum overlays. One double-size lithograph with tipped on dye-transfer print. Letterpress title page and colophon page, held in a red slipcase. 15" x 15" edition 20. A VARS production. Signed. $3000 (One remaining copy)
